Daily Podcast: Traveling More With Family in 2022

Today’s edition of Skift’s daily podcast describes the new booking patterns for families, Poland’s difficult tourism marketing situation, and Hong Kong’s easing of international tourism restrictions.

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Episode Notes

Many travelers are getting back on the road this year with different priorities. What exactly? A new survey finds that people booking travel are increasingly looking to make a positive impact in locations they visit as well as take more trips with their family, writes Global Tourism Reporter Lebawit Lily Girma.

The American Express 2022 Global Travel Trends, which surveyed consumers from seven countries, found that 81 percent of respondents — a 9 percentage point increase from last year — want to travel to a location where they can immerse themselves in the culture and direct their travel spending to the local economy. Moreover, roughly two-thirds of respondents said that they plan to travel more with family this year than in 2021.

Next, Poland was shaping up for a boom in tourist arrivals this year as it lifts Covid restrictions on April 1. But with war raging next door in Ukraine, how do its tourism officials tackle tourism messaging in major source markets? That’s a major dilemma facing the Poland Tourism Organization, writes Global Tourism Reporter Girma.

While Polish tourism executives acknowledge it’s premature to predict how the war will evolve and affect tourism to the country, many of them are reassuring prospective visitors that Poland is safe. Popular tourist destinations — such as Krakow, Warsaw and Gdansk — are located far from the border with Ukraine.

However, Magdalena Zelazowska, the director of the Polish Tourism Organization in New York, said despite Poland’s infrastructure being safe, she was advising travelers to take a wait and see approach before deciding to visit the country. Zelazowska said Polish tourism officials can’t predict how the situation there might change in the next two months prior to the summer season. In addition, she added that its hospitality industry is mainly focused on providing accommodation to the growing number of Ukrainian refugees.

We end today in Hong Kong. Asia Editor Peden Doma Bhutia reports that the territory is lifting its travel ban for nine countries from April 1 as well as reducing its mandatory hotel quarantine for incoming visitors.

Hong Kong will welcome visitors from nine countries, including the U.S., UK, France and India. Furthermore, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam announced the quarantine period for international arrivals would be shortened from 14 to seven days. But travelers to Hong Kong still need to take a Covid test at the airport prior to their hotel quarantine. They would be able to leave their hotel after seven days if a PCR test conducted during the quarantine period as well as all rapid antigen tests came back negative.

Lam had said in January that Hong Kong did not have the prerequisites for a “living with the virus” approach in part due to its less-than-ideal vaccination rate. However, after executives at major corporations warned that its strict Covid measures were damaging its economy, Hong Kong has decided to resume international flight operations with several of its biggest inbound flights markets.